NOTE 5. Kubla Khan.

A beautiful fragment of verse composed by Coleridge on awakening from a sleep in which he had dreamed these wonders.

NOTE 6. Lucy.

The five poems written by Wordsworth to the unknown "Lucy are among the most beautiful of English lyrics. Though they reveal little beyond her early death, they have made her name a living power in song.

NOTE 7. To a Child of Quality, Five Years Old.

Nothing is known of this famous little lady, save that she was long thought to have belonged to the Dorset family. The poem has been pronounced by critics one of the prettiest of all nursery idyls.

NOTE 8. The Destruction of Sennacherib.

It is worth while to notice the strength and simplicity of Byron's language in this noble poem.

NOTE 9.

Song.

Supposed to be sung by one of Robin Hood's outlawed band in merry Sherwood Forest.

NOTE 10. Old Ironsides.

This was the popular name by which the famous frigate Constitution was known.

NOTE 11. Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

66

The finest of modern ballads. It first appeared in a little volume entitled Lyrical Ballads," published by Wordsworth and Coleridge; and while many people marveled at its weird extravagance, true critics, like Charles Lamb, recognized it at once as a masterpiece.

NOTE 12. Elegy written in a Country Churchyard. Gray's reputation as a poet rests principally on this famous elegy a strong and sure foundation. It is a poem absolutely perfect of its kind.

66

NOTES

NOTE 13. Jenny Kissed Me.

235

Jenny" is said to have been Jane Welsh Carlyle, wife of the historian, Thomas Carlyle, a very brilliant and charming

woman.

NOTE 14. The Colubriad.

The Colubriad means the history or story of a snake, colubra being the Latin word for a female adder or viper.

NOTE 15. Hohenlinden.

A village in Upper Bavaria, where, on the 3d of December, 1800, the French general Moldeau met and defeated the archduke John of Austria.

NOTE 16. The Burial of Sir John Moore at Corunna. Sir John Moore, a British general, lost his life in Spain, fighting against Napoleon's victorious army. The French built him a tomb at Corunna, with this simple and noble inscription:

John Moore,

Leader of the English Armies.

Slain in Battle,

NOTE 17.

In old times it was the

1809.

Telling the Bees.

common custom, when a member of the household died, to inform the bees of the death, and drape their hives with black. Otherwise, it was thought, they would fly away.

NOTE 18. On a Favorite Cat, drowned in a Tub of Gold

fishes.

These delightful verses were sent by Gray in a letter to Horace Walpole, who had written to the poet that his

handsome cat" had been drowned in a bowl of goldfishes. Several copies of the poem, in Gray's handwriting, are in existence.

To Lucasta, on going to the TENNYSON, ALFRED.

To a Child of Quality, five WORDSWORTH, WILLIAM.